


Protective

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Gen, post strike
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 11:30:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17223224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Blink is protective of Crutchy after the strike is over.





	Protective

Jack spent the night after the strike at the Jacobs house. At least the Jacobs kids were who everybody had last seen him with, and it was no big secret that Jack was enamored, in different ways, with all three of them. That meant that the rest of the newsies were left to celebrate without their fearless leader. It also meant that some things that might’ve been Jack’s to take care of fell to Blink.

One of those things was Crutchy. It was already late when Blink decided to go talk to him. It was late, but nobody wanted to shut up. The novelty of having money in their pockets again had driven a lot of boys to buy as much food, drink, and candies as they could carry and afford, and by now the spoils were littering the lodging house dorm. Blink bummed a handful of caramels off of Snoddy, and went over to sit on Crutchy’s bunk. Crutchy laughed at the offer.

“Thanks Blinky buddy, but I’m about to burst.”

Blink smiled. “Yeah. Me too,” he said, jamming a caramel in his mouth anyway. Crutchy followed his lead, and took one as well, and then another.

“You holding up okay? You wanna talk about the Refuge?” Blink asked. Crutchy seemed to sit up a little straighter.

“Didja see how I slammed that paddy-wagon door on Snyder?”

“Yeah. Half us dreams of doing that.”

“I could tell you what I did to his sauerkraut, but I don’t wanna make you go off your dinner.”

Blink nodded. “Are you okay, is what I’m asking,” he explained. Sometimes it was best to be direct.

Crutchy’s smile faltered, but only for a moment. “You’d be better off asking Jack if he’s okay, because something tells me he ain’t. I stole him a whole potato, and he didn’t even eat it.”

Blink thought about that. He’d been in the Refuge himself, though not at the same time as Jack. He knew what that place could do to people, but also that it wasn’t always that bad. Blink had been there for medical care. They’d taken care of his eye, fed him, and given him a place to sleep. The only time he’d been directly spoken to by the warden, was when he’d come to see how he was healing, and shook his hand. The place needed some success stories, after all. Blink hadn’t needed two eyes to see how Snyder went after some of the kids there, but Blink himself hadn’t been one of them.

“Snyder makes your skin crawl, even when he’s being nice to you,” Blink said.

“That’s for sure.”

Crutchy’s cheerful tone came as a relief, but his next words were more somber.

“It was what the Delanceys did that scared me more than anything else. There’s ways to fight, even in the Refuge. It’s getting your own crutch yanked away from you that’s no picnic.” As if to verify that it was there, Crutchy took hold of his crutch, and tapped it once against the floor.

“That does sound bad,” Blink agreed.

“Well, I got it back now.”

“And none of us is going to let something like that happen again,” Blink promised. “And hey… about the Refuge. Sometimes you start to remember things when it’s over that make it worse. Even if they went easy on you. That happens, you come to me, got it?”

“Got it,” Crutchy said. He spat in his hand, and they shook, to seal the deal.


End file.
